Island



w. 0. MOUNT. APPARATUS FOR TREATING GASES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9; I918- Patented May 27, 1919.

UNITED PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM D. MOUNT, OF SALTVII IiB, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR TO NITROGEN PRODUCTS COMPANY, 01 PROVIDENCE, RHODI, D, A CORPORATION OF RHODE ISLAND.

nrrmrus non. TREATING eases.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM D. MOUNT, a citizen of the United States, residin at Saltville, in the county of Smyth and tate of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Treating Gases, of which the following is a specification.

This invention concerns apparatus formechanically feeding solid material through which a gas is to be passed, so as to air from said gas, especially while said material is being removed from said apparatus; and inone of. its aspects said invention relates to an improved automatically feeding stack or tower. for removing from a gas to be treated, a substance, such as moisture, the presence of which in-said gas is ob ectionable for subsequent operations.

It has of course long been known to pass moisture bearing gases through a tower filled with solid hygroscopic material; but

when considerable moisture or the like is' material, or the like, being supplied more or less continuously to one'end of'the apparatus and removed in like fashion from the other, with exclusion of air. This and other objects of the invention will be hereinafter referred to but it may be observed at this point, that to thus handle material suitable for drying nitrogen, for example, 1n such fashion as to prevent contamination of the gas being treated, with oxygen,1nvolves certain difii'culties which the novel combinations of elements and parts now to bendescribed. overcome. p

In the accompanying drawing I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention, but as I am' aware of various exclude Speciflcation of Letters Patent. Patented May 27, 1919, Application flied lay 9, 191a. Serial'lfb. 2sa,41o.-

changes and modifications which may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention, I desire to be limited only by the scope of the. appended claims, wherein are more particularly pointed out the said combinations.

Referrin to the drawing, wherein like reference 0 aracters designate like parts in the respective views Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improved tower, partlybroken away to better show certain of the features thereof; 1

Fig; 2 is a bottom view of the apparatus; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectiontaken on the line IIIIII of Fi 1; and

4 is a detail section taken on the line F1 IV IV of Fig. 3.

The tower preferably comprises a tapering shell or casing 1, the sections of which may be flanged and suitably fastened together as at 2. At the top is a hopper? through which, lime, soda-lime, or other material to be used, for example, as a drying and purifying agent, may be introduced;

the hopper delivering to a charging valve 4, which, as shown, preferably has a relatively large pocket 4' therein.

When this valve is rotated through substantially 180 the pocket is of course emptied the tower proper, and neither at such or anyother time can the gas being treated, escape, except for ,such a small quantity thereof as may find its way into and subsequently out of said pocket, as the latter is rotated back to its charge receiving position, or for sweeping out purposes as hereinafter described.

-At the bottom of thetower is a rotary table 5 mounted on a spindle 6, which may be integral therewith, and which is prefer ably continuously driven by suitable gearing.

In the preferred construction a worm with a bevel gear 11 on the end of the trunnion 12 of a pocketed valve 13, hereinafter referred to. The opposite trunnion 14 of said valve carries a gear 15, driven in any suitable manner as by the pinion 16.

The table 5 is housed in a casing 17 which supports the tower; being itself in turn supported by its lugs 17.

A bottom plate 18 closes the casing and provides the bottom of a channel or trough 19 through which is swept the material being removed from the tower. Bottom plate 18 is provided with an annular flange 21 of the table 5 to prevent centripetal movement of said material.

The table also carries sweeps 22 which travel tround the channel 19 and collect into batches and pushalong or propel the material which falls into said channel around to the opening 23 which admits said material to a small hopper 24 leading to the valve 13 aforesaid.

This valve is substantially like the charging valve 4, but is preferably smaller, and whereas the valve 4 may be conveniently operated by hand,valve 13 is preferably continuously power driven; its rate of rotation desirably being such, compared to the speed of rotation of the table 5, as to provide that the pocket 13' therein shall not normally be completely filled at any time before it rotates sufficiently to cut off the flow of material thereinto.

After that the hopper 24 gradually accumulates the bulk of the next charge for valve 13 while the latter is discharging its previous load and its pocket is thereafter being rotated on around to its charge receiving position.

The loads of material falling from valve 13 pass through the conduit 25, or an extension thereof, to their place of deposit.

The bottom plate 18 is provided with a bearing 26 for the spindle 6, and is preferably strengthened by ribs 27; while the hopper 24 is attached to the under side of said bottom plate.

the gas to be purified enters; an exit pipe 30' for said gas being provided at the upper end of the tower. The housing 17 is so shaped as to provide a preferably circular gas channel above the channel or trough 19 and around the base of the column of solid material, so that gas entering by pipe 29 flows uniformly through the drier charge from this circular channel, and does not tend to rush up the side nearest the inlet, which is so positioned as not to be clogged by the drying material.

In cases where especial care is to be exercised to prevent ingress of even traces of air to the gas being purified, the construction shown in Fig. 3 (and fragmentarily in Fig. 1) may be used. In thiscase the trunnions of the valve 4 are provided with conduits 31,

I 1 ,soaeev 32; the former being in the trunnion 33 and the latter in trunnion 34. These trunnions are preferably journaled in bushings 35 disposed in the heads 3636 upon the respective sides of the valve casing. These heads permit the introduction of the valve into said casing tainers.

'To the head 36 is bolted a cap 37, which 1s and serve as lateral guides or repreferably taper-bored to receive the simi larly tapered end of the corresponding valve tends through the wall of trunnion 33, from conduit 31, so that while normally there is no communication between. the latter and: a vent 42 leading to the outer air, or wherever desired,when the valve, after receiving its charge, has been rotated, as indicated, through about a regulated flow of the gas being treated in the tower, e. g. nitrogen, will pass up the pipe 42 (if valve 43 be opened or partly opened), and traverse a similar port 41 in trunnion 34, to then pass in succession through conduit 32, the intersticesin the charge in the valve, conduit 33 and the said port 41, to the outer air or elsewhere through the vent 42'.

In this way the air in theinterstices of the load or charge in the valve may be swept out,

especially if the valve 4 be held in the described position for an instant or two.

As this valve is further rotated toward its load discharging position, the ports will close to prevent further escape of the pure gas and will only be opened again when the above described operation is to be repeated, following the introductionof a further load into the charging valve. The crank 40 is, of

course, preferably turned always in one direction.

I have discovered that it is desirable to provid positively'actin means to regulate the speed of delivery of t e spent solid material from the tower, and to this end I preferably provide a circular apron 44 of light sheet metal, adapted to slide up and down within a downward extension or flange 44',

withdrawn. from below, fresh material is in;

crementally introduced to keep the apparatus properly charged.

With the table rotating at any definite speed and drying material, or the like, of a certain fineness being fed through the drier,

the rate of feeding can be increased by raising the apron, or decreased, if desired, by lowering it 1 c In adapting the apparatus for use with different drying materials, it would be necessary to properly proportion the diameter of the table, and, in a general way, its speed of revolution, to the diameter and distance from the table of the lower edge or bottom, of the flange 44', or the equivalent of the latter. Having made this rough adjustment, the apron provides the finer, flexible adjustment needed. The proper position of the apron for the desired rate of feed will then be dependent upon the angle of the material being rotarily'fed, as determined by the physical characteristics of said material. he nitrogen to be treated passes into the casing 17 through pipe 29 and thence traverses the interstices between the lumps or particles of the drying medium, to finall escape from the tower via pipe 30.

The greater art of any moisture present in the gas is of course removed by the lime or the like the casing 17 and in the lower section of the tower, and as this absorbent material is thereby gradually hydrateduntil it becomes-substantially valueless as a dry-,

ing agent, 'itis removed from the tower by the rotation of the table 5 which works the material upon its surface out toward its periphery until said material drops into the channel 19, from which it is removed by the Sweeps 22 into the hopper 24, whence, as the valve 13'automatically turns to receive it, it drops into the pocket 13' to be.subsequently delivered thence through conduit 25.

Obviously, even though said conduit should deliver directly to the outer air, little if any ofthe latter can find its Way into the tower; but to preclude even the entrance of the small quantities of air trapped in the pocket of valve 13, when its pocket orifice is ascending, I prefer to deliver the spent charge to an alr-tight receptacle 47 which, if desired, may be initially filled with pure nitrogen.

Thus admission of air to the tower by reason of the removal of the drying material, or the like, is substantially prevented and the charging valve 4-, at the top, similarly excludes air at this point.

Finally, it may be well to point out the value of the provision of downwardly and outwardly spreadin or tapering the walls of the tower, especia ly when the apparatus is embodied in a lime drier orthe like. Where it is attempted to, thus more or less continuously feed lime or other moisture abrsorbing material. through a tower of con- .siderable height, e. g. ten feet, by gravity in co-action with a feed table such as that described,'it will be found that if the tower is not shaped like, for example, a'truncated cone, but rather is cylindrical, the material descending through the tower will frequently choke or clog, as it expands considerabl during its absorption of moisture; in which case the device soon becomes inoperative both as a feeding mechanism and as regards its function as a means for removing moisture or the like from the passed therethrough.

Having thus described my invention, what I claina is:

1. In as-treating apparatus, the combination of a substantially vertical stack through which a substantially unbroken column of gas-treating material is fed by gravity, with means to introduce said material in solid form but in pieces at the upper part. of said stack While substantially excluding air, a rotating feed table to directly supportsubstantially the entire bulk of the material in said stack, means to rotate said table to feed said material gradually oil from. thetable surface, means to receive the so removed material and deliver it from said apparatus while preventing air from flowing therethrough up into the gas being treated, means to conduct the gas to be treated to one part of said column of material for continuous and substantially uninterrupted upward passage through the interstices of said bulk of material and means to conduct the treated gas away from the upper part of said column.

2. In gas-treating apparatus, the com- 'bination of a substantially vertical stack through which a column of gas-treating material is fed by gravity, with means to introduce pieces-of said material at the upper end of said stack while substantially exeluding air, a rotating feed table to support the material in said stack, a trough around said feed table, means to rotate said table to feed said material gradually off from thetable surface into said trough, sweeping means, attached to and movable with said table, to propel the so removed material alon said trough, means to receive said materia from said sweeping means and deliver it from said apparatus while preventing air from flowin therethrough up into the gas being treate means to conduct the gas to be treated to one part of said column of vmaterial for passage upwardly through the interstices of said material, and means to conduct the treated gas away from an upper part of said column.

3. In gas-treating apparatus, the combination of a substantially vertical stack through which a substantially unbrokencolumn of gas-treating material is fed by gravity, with means to introduce fresh material to said stack while substantially preventing an inflow of air into the gas being treated, means to remove from the apparatus the treating material which has been impaired during its passage through said stack, said removing means including a power-driven rotating table which directly supports said column and feeds the impaired material away from the base of said column, means to collect into batches and propel along the impaired material delivered by said table, and a power driven device for delivering said impaired material to a point outside of said apparatus while substantially excluding an inflow of air.

4. In gas-treating apparatus, the combination of a substantially vertical stack through which a column of as-treating material is fed by gravity, wit means to. introduce fresh material to said stack while substantially preventing an inflow of air into the gas being treated, means to remove from the apparatus the treating material which has been impaired during its passage through said stack, said removing means including a power-driven rotating table which sup-' ports said column and feeds the impaired material away from the base of said column, means to collect the impaired material delivered by said table, a power driven device for delivering said impaired material to a point outside of said ap aratus while substantially excluding an i ow of air and connections between said table and device to maintain a determined relationship between the speeds of movement thereof. I

5. In gas-treating apparatus, the combination of a substantially vertical stack through which a column of gas-treating material is fed by gravity, with means to introduce fresh material to said stack while substantially preventing an inflow of air into the gas being treated, means to remove from the apparatus the treating material which has been impaired during its passage through said stack, saidremoving means including a power-driven rotating table which supports said column and feeds the impaired material material, and means to drive said table and valve at speeds which bear a predetermined relationship to each other.

6. In apparatus for purifying nitrogen gas or the like, a stack to contain" solid ma 'to conduct the purified gas'away from the upper end of said stack, said charging means "including provisions for sweeping out air present in the solid material being introduced, before said material is delivered to said stack.

7 In apparatus of the class described, the combination of a principal receptacle for holding a charge of fragmentary material to be subjected to the action of a gas, with a secondary receptacle for at times temporarily holding a quantity of said material apart from said charge, one of said receptacles being disposed with respect to the other to permit of movement of a given quantity of said material from one of said receptacles into the other when said receptacles are in communication with each other,

means for establishing and disestablishing said communication, andmeans for forcibly displacing any air present in said secondary receptacle prior to the establishment of communication between said receptacles in manner aforesaid, said air displacing means including a conduit through which is supplied a gas which is innocuous to the operation to be eifected in said principal receptacle and means to control the flow of said innocuous gas through said secondary receptacle,

whereby the air may be swept out of saidsecondary receptacle by said flow of innocuous gas.

8. In apparatus of the. class described, the combination of a principal receptacle for holding a charge of fragmentary material to be subjected to the action of a gas, with a secondary receptacle for at times temporarily holding a quantity of said material apart from said charge, one of said receptacles being disposed with respect to the other to permit of movement of a given quantity of said material from one of said receptacles into the other when said receptacles are in communication with each other, means for establishing and disestablishing said communication, means for forcibly displacing any air present in said secondary receptacle prior to the establishment of communication between said receptacles in manner aforesaid, said air displacing means including a conduit through which is supplied a gas said air displacing means for conserving'said 10 which is innocuous to the operation to be flow of gas.

effected in said principal receptacle and In testimony whereof I have afiixed my means to control the flow of said innocuous signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

gas throu h said secondar receptacle, y whereby tli e air may be swepi z out of said WILLIAM MOUNT secondary receptacle by said flow of innocu- Witnesses:

ous gas, and operative connections between NANCY SPENCER,

said communication establishing means and NELLE FAIN.- 

